Håller Sveriges bild i USA på att förändras från karikatyrer som ”socialistlandet”? Knappast bland allmänheten. Men man kan ändå notera att några republikaner hyllar Sverige som ett föregångsland när det gäller minskning av statens utgifter.
Ta tex republikanske senatorn Tom Coburn från Oklahoma som i en längre intervju med Ezra Klein på Washington Post förklarar svängningen:
TC: Go look at Sweden. Here’s what Sweden did. They cut their spending and their taxes. They have the best growth rate in Europe. They had a surplus this year. They had growth at six-plus percent. They actually did a Reagan style approach to their problem by cutting spending and cutting taxes. And they’re the fastest growing with a decline in their debt-to-GDP ratio.
EK: But correct me if I’m wrong, but if I recall, Sweden’s monetary policy went towards a very sharp devaluation, they’ve been driven by export growth, and alongside Israel, they’ve been more aggressive than any other central bank in the world. They’ve done stuff that if we did it here, people would lose their minds.
TC: I think there are monetary parts to that. But their finance minister put in place tough stuff. They had people who left Sweden because of the tax ratio. Now they’ve moved back. And it’s not a perfect example, but it’s an exception to the Krugman story.
Uh-oh, någon nämnde Krugman?
Paul Krugman håller inte med:
Somebody has been practicing harsh spending-side austerity — and it’s not Sweden.